What You Should Know About Copyright

Copyright is defined by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) as those “creations of the mind: inventions, literary and artistic works, as well as symbols, names, and images used in commerce”[1], highlighting the division between Industrial Property and copyright, the latter being the subject of this article.

Likewise, it is important to clarify that copyright empowers the creator to seek protection for “a work in the literary and artistic field, understood as any human expression resulting from ingenuity and talent that is materialized in any form perceptible to the senses and in an original manner”[2]; that is, it is not possible to protect ideas or thoughts through Copyright, they are only protected when they can be appreciated in some material support.

It is appropriate to clarify that the work is protected with the mere materialization and registration is not essential; however, it is recommended since it allows opposability against third parties, that is, the power to claim ownership, other rights, and rewards derived from the work before others. Now, within Copyright, moral rights, economic rights, and related rights are incorporated. The former (moral rights) correspond to the fundamental character that the work possesses in relation to its author, since through these the author imprints their personality, which is reflected in their creation; they receive great protection since their protection is perpetual, being imprescriptible, unseizable, irrevocable, and inalienable inter vivos, since the only way to transfer them is through the respective succession.

Moral rights include:

• The preservation of the work as unpublished or the possibility of its disclosure;
• The power to seek recognition of authorship of the work at any time;
• The possibility of opposing any deformation, mutilation, or modification that undermines the integrity of the work or the reputation of the author;
• Allows the introduction of modifications to the work, before or after its disclosure;
• Allows the withdrawal of the work from the market, or the suspension of any form of use even if it had been previously authorized.[3]

Likewise, within Copyright we find economic rights, which allow the author to monitor and/or control the economic acts and exploitation that occur on their work; unlike moral rights, economic rights can be transferred inter vivos, depending on the circumstances and facts. The modalities we find are: assignment of rights contract, work made for hire (the owner of the economic rights will be the one who contracted for the work to be done); collective work (the owner of the economic rights will be the publisher or the legal entity or individual on whose account and risk the contributions of the natural persons who contribute to the collective works are made); Works created by public servants (the economic rights are vested in the corresponding public entity); and like the former, economic rights can also be transferred by reason of death to the heirs of the owner.

Economic rights include:

• Reproduction;
• Public communication;
• Public distribution of copies;
• Translation, adaptation, arrangement, or other transformation of the work;
• Importation of copies of the work reproduced without authorization.[4]

Lastly, but not least, we find related rights, being an independent category, since these are a series of rights established “to protect the interests of performers, producers of records, cassettes, and compact discs (phonogram producers), and broadcasting organizations (radio and television), in relation to their performances, phonograms, and broadcasts, respectively”[5]. That is, they seek to satisfy those who contribute to the execution of the work.

 

AUTHOR: Yone Alexander Sanchez – Legal Assistant Intern in the Corporate Law Area.